Thursday, March 11, 2010
Keeping Playoff Hopes (Barely) Alive
Posted by Chris Herrington on Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 10:55 AM
With last night's 111-91 win at Boston, the Grizzlies have extended their current road winning streak to 7 games and have won 4 of their past 5. As of today, the Grizzlies are 3.5 games behind the Portland Trailblazers for the 8th seed and 4.5 games behind the San Antonio Spurs for the 7th seed. With 17 games to go for the Grizzlies, the odds of making the post-season are slim, but there is still a legitimate chance, and I suspect the race will tighten in the coming weeks. Let's look at the schedules for these three teams the rest of the way:
Memphis: 17 games, 8/9 home/road split. 10 against teams with winning records, 6 against teams with > .600 winning %, 5 against teams with > .650 winning %.
Portland: 16 games, 7/9 home/road split. 8 against teams with winning records, 7 against teams with > .600 winning %, 4 against teams with > .650 winning %.
San Antonio: 20 games, 8/12 home/road split. 14 against teams with winning records, 11 against teams with > .600 winning %, 7 against teams with > .650 winning %.
Factor San Antonio's loss of Tony Parker for potentially the rest of the regular season against those remaining schedules and the conclusion is this: The Grizzlies are playoff longshots, but the team they’re chasing is more likely to be the Spurs than the Blazers.
The Spurs have more games left, with a higher percentage on the road and a higher percentage against elite teams — they still play the Lakers and Magic twice and have road games left against Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, OKC, Boston, and Phoenix. If the Grizzlies can build on this current 4-1 stretch and play well the rest of the way, look for the race to tighten up. Chances are there isn't enough time left to overtake the Spurs, but don't count it out yet.
Comments (4)
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It's just great to beat the crap out of the Boston bluebloods. Their so smug with their Celtics mystique and all. Hey Boston, here's you a little southern hospitality - a 20 point butt whoopin!
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Lets say the grizz somehow go on a 13-4 run to end the season and finish with a 47-35 record. And lets say the spurs play .500 ball for the rest of the season and end up with 47 wins as well. How much would it suck if it came down to that last game at San Antonio and we didnt win it? We wouldnt make the playoffs on a tie breaker! Right now the spurs are up 2-1 against the grizz. If the grizz end up going 13-4, they need to make sure San Antonio isnt one of those losses.
I was losing the hope on achieving the playoffs but after read this article it has increased
The chances of making the playoffs are so slim, I hate to see people fixating on that as a measure of the season's success. Whether we get in or not, we should not lose sight of the fact that this has been a FABULOUS season for the Grizz. Just take stock of what we were feeling a year ago to realize what amazing progress they've made. This is the most fun team to watch and root for since the Grizz have been in Memphis, with bright hope for the future. Even Conley and Williams are playing well. The best positive out of finishing strong is that it might convince Heisley to shell out enough to re-sign Rudy.
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